While
distracted driving has been around since the advent of automobile travel,
recently it has become a focus of increasing interest.Some of this interest is attributable to the
increased use of cell phones and to a recent surge in state legislation to curb
cell phone use while driving, possibly because cell phones are among the newer
and more visible array of driver distractions.Drowsiness is another condition that takes drivers’ attention away from
the road.

Despite
the growing concern over these behaviors, little information is available on
the specific conditions under which drivers engage in various distracted and
drowsy driving behaviors.In addition,
little information exists on the characteristics of the drivers who exhibit
these behaviors.

To
help answer these and other questions surrounding distracted and drowsy
driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has
undertaken a national survey of the driving public's attitudes and experiences
related to distracted and fatigued driving behaviors.NHTSA
contracted with The Gallup Organization to conduct two surveys of the driving
public’s attitudes and behaviors regarding speeding, and a second dealing with
unsafe driving.Both surveys covered
aggressive driving, driver distraction and fatigued driving.

Similar methods were used to field the two surveys and many
of the questions were asked on both surveys to provide more robust estimates.The data collected in the two surveys resulted in two separate reports:
this report on Distracted and Drowsy Driving and a second report on Speeding
and Aggressive Behaviors, which is published under a separate cover.

Methods

Sampling
Objective

The sampling
requirement of the two studies was the same: acquire a representative national
sample of drivers age 16 and older in the 50 U.S. states and Washington,
D.C.

In order to accommodate the need to acquire data on
topics of speeding, aggressive and unsafe driving, distracted and fatigued
driving, two separate surveys were undertaken. The first survey focused on
speeding behaviors, while the second survey focused on aggressive driving and
other unsafe driving behaviors.Both
versions measured distracted driving and drowsy driving.In addition, split-sample procedures were
used within each version to extend the number of questions that could be asked
within the 18-minute telephone survey.

Each survey
instrument was fielded as an independent national sample and was constructed in
an identical manner.Gallup used a
three-stage procedure to meet the sampling objective:

1.Gallup first identified the universe of residential telephone
listings within each of the eight U.S. Census Regions.

2.Second, Gallup drew a systematic sample of telephone 100-number
blocks within each region. Gallup then randomly generated the last two numbers
for a full 10-digit phone number within each valid block selected in the
previous stage.This procedure provides
for an equal probability of selection for each working residential telephone
number in the United States (both listed and unlisted residential telephone
households).

3.Next, a single driver age 16 or older was randomly selected (using
the “most recent birthday” method described in the Methods report) for
inclusion from all eligible members of the driving public residing in that
household.

Up to 14 attempts were made to reach each randomly
selected respondent.Seven attempts
were made to reach the household, and once a respondent in the household was
identified, Gallup made up to seven additional attempts to reach that person.

Using the two surveys, Gallup completed a total of 4,010
telephone interviews with vehicle drivers age 16 and older between February 4,
2002 and April 14, 2002.Interviews
were completed in both English and Spanish, using a computer-assisted telephone
interviewing(CATI) system.

Sample Weighting

While the two
samples were weighted separately, similar sample weighting was carried out for
each sample.The final telephone
samples of drivers age 16 and older were weighted to equalize selection
probabilities (at both the household and the individual levels ¾ particularly
since we excluded non-drivers), and to adjust for non-response bias by
demographics.In the last stage of the
weighting process, the adjusted results were projected to the number of drivers
age 16 or older in the United StatesA
detailed description of the weighting procedures can be found inVolume
II: Methods.

The final number of weighted and unweighted interviews by
age and gender appear below:

Gender

Age

TOTAL

Male

Female

16-20

21-29

30-45

46-64

65+

Total
Unweighted

4010

1798

2212

214

530

1298

1242

697

Weighted

4010

1970

2040

352

610

1303

1115

610

Estimated sampling error range

±1.5%

±2.3%

±2.1%

±6.7%

±4.3%

±2.3%

±2.8%

±3.7%

Precision of
Sample Estimates

All sample surveys
are subject to sampling error in that results may differ from what would be
obtained if the whole population had been interviewed. The size of such sampling error depends largely
on the number of interviews.For the
main sample of 4,010 telephone interviews, the expected maximum sampling error
range is approximately +/- 1.5% at the 95% level of confidence. The table above
shows the sampling error ranges by age and gender at the 95% level of confidence.Due to the stratification and other complexities of the sample design,
in some cases (particularly among smaller sub-groups of the population) the
error ranges will be slightly larger than those shown in the table.This information is provided to offer the reader a general
sense of the range of the true estimates.The report Volume II: Methods,
presents a table showing the expected sampling error ranges for sub-group sizes
in the sample.

Data
Presented

It
should be noted that this is a top-line report on survey data and includes
responses from more than 4,000 persons of driving age on more than 200 survey
questions.The report is not intended
to provide in-depth analyses of any one topic, but rather to give the reader a
general overview of the data.Additional analyses may be done at the reader's discretion.

The data in this report are based on driver responses
from two separate surveys conducted concurrently.Some of the questions were shared between the two surveys, while
others were unique to one of the two surveys.The two surveys were referred to as “Speed” and “Unsafe” to identify
their primary topic differences.Figures in the report identify from which of the two surveys (Speed or
Unsafe) the data are based.In
addition, within each survey version some questions were asked of a random
half-sample of drivers, rather than the entire survey base.These items are noted with an “(A)” or “(B)”
marker in the figure.

The sample bases for most
figures can be found in reference tables below.For figures based on other populations, the sample base appears
at the bottom of the figure page.A definition
of the NHTSA Regions 1-10 can be found in Appendix A.